//------------------------------// // Chapter 6 // Story: A New Way In The Everfree // by Cookie_Girl //------------------------------// Arceus the pokemon god had just made his announcement to the world that he had brought his pokemon here to Equus so that they would be free from the oppression of... Actually that's kind of depressing. Lets move on with the story. After hearing Arceus talk to what they could only assume (correctly) was the entire planet Joy, Jenny, Rusty, Monk, and Scary had gone looking for him. After all he had just told them that he was staying in the forest and that they were (along with anyone else) invited to stop by. They didn't get very far however, and were now stuck up a tree. Down below them were two pokemon. The first was a kabutops who looked slightly annoyed. "I'm really sorry about this. He's not dangerous I swear." she said and looked down at the eevee that was held in her arms. "Let me at em, let me at em!" the eevee said loudly. He gnashed his teeth, barked, and scrambled his little legs in the air as he tried to chase after them. Everyone in the tree blinked. Well not Rusty because his eyes were closed. It was Monk who spoke first. "Yeah...we weren't running away from him. We were running away from that." he pointed behind her. Kabutops turned and looked behind her. The thing was terrifyingly huge. Its body was easily the same size as a tyrantrum's. Its clawed feet almost as big around as a blastoise's shell. Worst of all, each of its four heads were as large as a faraligatr's. The only explanation for why she had not seen it was that along with her trying to catch a hyper aggressive eevee, the creature was camouflaged by its green and gray coloration which combined with its size and multiple heads to make it look like a boulder next to some trees. None of that was important at the moment though. All that mattered to her was the look it was giving everyone. She often hunted for her food, and occasionally was hunted by larger predators, so she knew that look. It was hungry. And it had four mouths to feed. Kabutops slowly moved towards the tree, followed every step by one of the snake like heads while two watched those in the tree and the fourth kept watch for threats. When she got close enough Kabutops raised the small Normal type up to the others. Monk reached down and took him from her... The hydra struck, but Kabutops used a Protect to stop the attack. A second head came at her from the side, but she raised a scythe in defense and it pulled back to avoid the blade. She then attacked with her scythes, using several Slash attacks to drive the beast back. The four heads of the hydra all focused on Kabutops. She crossed her arms, and readied another Protect. The hydra spread its heads out around her to get passed the edge of the shield. Two of them struck at her, but missed as she dodged out of the way. She retaliated with a slice at one of the necks, but it jerked away only receiving a small cut. One head bit at her from behind while another swept at her legs trying to knock her off balance. Kabutops saw it coming, and decided to Aqua Jet out of the way. Water surrounded her body, and surged downwards with the strength of a geyser. She shot up at an impressive speed for something that couldn't fly, and extended her arms out for a double Slash attack. She swung twice at one head, but another slammed into her back and knocked her to the ground. Not being a stranger to battle Kabutops recovered before her opponent (or would it be opponents) could take advantage. Rolling across the ground with three of the hydra's heads slamming the ground behind her, she came to a stop and fired a Scald into the face of the fourth head. The hydra's four heads shrieked in pain from the boiling water, and then roared in anger. Rearing back the heads bared their fangs that were dripping with acidic venom. They lunged forward, but jerked to a stop. The momentum of the strike sent streams of venom flying at the pokemon. Kabutops recognized what looked like a Gunk Shot, so having a resistance to poison she took the hit head on and charged up her Night Slash. The acid tingled on her her rock like shell, but did little harm and caused no poisoning. The hydra blinked all eight eyes in surprise when its venom did nothing. One pair of eyes failed to open, and one head fell to the ground after Kabutop sliced her Night Slash through the base of its neck. Landing on the ground behind the beast Kabutops quickly spun, and Slashed at a massive leg leaving a gash in her enemy's...lower calf. She blinked, and looked up. Kabutops suddenly realized exactly how much of a size difference there was between her and the now five headed hydra. "...wait what?" Kabutops quickly counted the heads that were giving her a very annoyed look. Then she looked down at the one she had cut off, which didn't even have any blood coming from it and was starting to dissolve. She looked back up, and sweat dropped. "I don't suppose you need to go on a diet do you?" The hydra roared and struck with all five heads at once. Kabutops dodged by leaping backwards, and unleashed a wide Scald that sprayed boiling water over all five of the hydra's heads. The monster swung its heads away, and used the momentum to bring its tail into the fight. Kabutops stopped her Scald and saw something coming at her from her right side, but she couldn't move in time to avoid the hit. Being the size of a crocodile's entire body the hydra's tail slammed into her with the force of an adult bull elephant. Trees cracked apart as her stony body was launched through them. Kabutops hit the ground hard enough to bounce, leaving a crater followed by a shallow trench as her head dragged along the forest floor. She finally came to a stop, and flipped head over heels once more to flop onto her belly. The hydra's five heads hissed angrily at Kabutops, and started crawling after her. It came to the crater and would have continued if it had not felt something on its tail. One of the heads turned to see what it was, and its hissing laughter got the attention of the others. They all looked to see the eevee as it tried to pull them back by its teeth. The hydra lifted its tail with the eevee hanging onto the tip. They all laughed again, and flicked their tail hard enough to send the small pokemon flying into the tree. Scary caught the little puppy like pokemon after he bounced off the tree trunk. If he was hurt he didn't seem to know or care as he immediately tried to run right back into the battle, kicking his legs in midair as Scary held him in her hooves. "Why don't you just go pick on something your own size you big ugly brute!" Joy yelled. The hydra must have been offended by the ugly comment because it rounded on Joy, and hissed in her face. It then had a few teeth knocked out of one jaw when a furry white projectile collided with it. Monk held on after his attack and climbed onto the nose of the head. Getting as close to its face as he could Monk said "That was rude! Now apologize!", and pointed his paw thereby accidentally poking it in the eye. "EEEEIIIIIIIAAAAAA!" The hydra hissed in pain, and the head who's eye had been poked flailed about, throwing Monk off as it did so. The other four heads tried to calm the other one, but pain and hunger were now replaced with anger and revenge. The hydra spat five streams of acid at the tree, trying to hit everyone. Joy shot the acid with her fire causing it to evaporate. Rusty attacked with an Ice Beam in the hope that the hydra was weak to cold like Dragons, and while it did hit directly on the body it had no effect because of the monster's enraged state. Eevee was shooting Shadow Balls in rapid succession as he rode on the bat pony's back while she flew circles around the five heads, and all of his attacks hit their mark. Monk began swinging from tree to tree gathering more and more momentum for an attack. When Monk saw an opening for a strike he flew from the trees like a fuzzy white rocket. "Close Combat!" he yelled as he aimed at one of the heads. He got flattened by a head but from another, and was then held in place by a giant clawed foot. The others soon followed. With each of its soon to be victims held down by a claw the hydra reared back its five heads in preparation for a death strike. From the trees came an energy ball that collided with one of the heads. More attacks of the same type came from the direction that Kabutops had been sent flying in. Each attack hit perfectly on target as she came charging into battle. "Feel my Ancient Power!" she screamed in rage. Her Ancient Power attacks fuelled her strength, her speed, her defense, and her special abilities. "Rrrrrraaaaaaahhhhhh!" The hydra stumbled with each hit it took. The others all ran for safety. Kabutops stopped her barrage of the Rock type attacks, and leaped up, higher than she would be able to normally thanks to the power boost from Ancient Power. When she was high enough, and directly over her target she aimed and fired a Hyper Beam which struck the hydra in the center of its back slamming it into the ground. After the beam stopped she began to fall from very high up as the force of her attack had pushed her father up into the air. She had enough time to recover her energy to execute a Giga Impact. The subsequent explosion of dirt from the,shockwave was almost visible from Ponyville. When the dust cleared both Kabutops, and the hydra were laying motionless. It was a few minutes before either of them could move. The first to move was the hydra. It raised its heads slowly, and looked to where the others were hiding behind a log. It tried to climb to its feet, but fell back down as what little strength it had left seemed to leave it. As the hydra fell its great bulk revealed that Kabutops had bitten into one of the hydra's necks, and had began feeding on its life force with Mega Drain. The battle was over. Elsewhere in the forest. In one of the darker parts of the Everfree. Where the trees literally grabbed at you with hooked branches, and no normal creatures can live. One lone pokemon was standing stunned at the news that the father of all had moved them to another planet. Ninetails was quiet as he thought about that. In her silence he could hear the silence of the forest around him. But a silent forest is a deadly forest. Even the Grass type dogs that had first challenged him were gone. Something was prowling. A twig barely brushing against tough scales. "Who's there?!" Ninetails demanded as he spun around to face his stalker. Ninetails was not a young pokemon. In fact he was well past his prime, but his experience was unmatched by nearly all he had met. He had seen most of what the world had to show, but now he found something that was simply astounding. A giant serpent, not of this new world, but of his old one. The Arbok rose up and held his gaze as it answered his question. In a deep liquid smooth voice the snake said "Asmodeus."